The Chipenden Spook
by spookslastapprentice
Summary: PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS ON THE LAST BOOK OF THE WARDSTONE CHRONICLES(Spook's Revenge/Fury of the Seventh Son) AND THE FIRST BOOK OF THE STARBLADE CHRONICLES(A New Darkness)!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Shaiksa Assassin**

My name is Thomas Ward, as of right now I am the Chipenden Spook. Although it has been a struggle and an life changing experience to get where I am now and the knowledge I have yet to share, within a moment, I almost had everything taken away from me.

I'd have to say I've took in many unbelievable decisions that no one should be forced to make. Some, I had no say in at all. I've done and seen things only I could describe. A life as a Spook is difficult, yes. But someone has to do it.

As I come to recall, no matter how many dark memories I have encountered, I realize good eventually comes within. And sometimes, as fortunate as things could possibly get, luck is right by your side.

I remember the night as if it had just been yesterday. To start further off, within less of a year, my life moved from one place, to another traumatically. I had succeed in the battle against the Fiend, but to come with a terrible cost. My own master, John Gregory, had lost his life. Not to mention the loss of a deep friendship, with the person I held dearest, Alice Deane.

Im going through a overwhelming mixture of feelings these days. You see, it started with the end of the Fiend. A new powerful god will rise, Talkus, taking the form of a Skelt. The threat has been taken in a land far from my home in Chipenden. Which is why I am here, in a land far different than mine. Or so it seems...

I've been forced to fight the Shaiksa assassin, Kauspetnd. I've been pretending to be something I'm not. I've been listening to orders, that little did I know would get me killed. I am a Spook, right? Or was at the least... Spooks need to do what they feel is right and rely on their instincts to make the best decisions possible. I took orders and in no where named did I object. I have an apprentice, Jenny Calder... I've many things that I need to attend to, and sort out on my own. So many things...

But there I was. Alive. You see, when I had fought the assassin, we had a suspenseful fight. It had cost him his life, but not before he took mine. I had been pierced in the torso with one of Kauspetnd's blades. The pain had surged through me as I fell to my knees, trying to capture and save all the air I could. Obviously the experience was unbearable and ended quickly, and the last thing me remembering was the death of the assassin, and the crowd coming to a complete and utter silence.

That was it.

I knew I was dying, and I knew I would be dead in seconds. Unfortunately, that's exactly how it happened.

I've been told, that Grimalkin had rushed me to shelter, so she could aid my gash. The healing process began, but, they told me, it didn't complete before I was long gone. So as it was, I was dead and had to be buried. I was put in my coffin, and was about to be taken under, when the most impossible thing happened, that gave me, a second chance at life...


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Out of the coffin**

I awoke. My head was whirling my legs were numb and there were cuts all over my body. But most of all, the pain coming from my chest was unbelievable. I wanted to see what was wrong. I needed to, because frankly, I hadn't a clue what had happened for me to be in this state.

Confused I opened my eyes slowly and looked around me. There, in the pitch blackness, was nothing to see. I was covered in a sheet.

"Where am I? Who am I?" I whispered into the blackness.

I needed to get out and have a look around. So saying, I started to slowly move my arms along the wall of which surrounded me. I started to figure out that I was in a rectangular box. How could I get out? I tried pushing to two sides, but to no avail would they open. I tried the top. It worked! All I needed to do was be able to push it completely open so I could get out. So I started to push. As hard as I could. It wouldn't open fully! So tried and tried, but the pain from my chest had been keeping back all of the strong power I need to use.

But I didn't have to open it. It opened by itself, by someone on the outside.

It was nighttime, the the moons light lit the box brightly compared to the pitch darkness it had before.

It took me awhile to stand up. It took all of my willpower. But when I did, I saw something strange.

A girl with black hair and blades across her chest was standing closest to me, with a younger girl a few paces behind her. Multiple people were behind them, looking just as surprised and a little scared. Why did they look like this?

I held onto the edges of the box, trying to keep my balance, as the blade woman walked toward me slowly.

"Who are you? Get away from me!" I yelled, my breath fogging into the night.

She kept on approaching as I tried to escape the box. You see, the box would have been easy to escape, if it weren't for the pain I was experiencing. Everything I was doing took all the strength I had. Sitting up, standing up, lifting my legs, lifting my arms...

She got so close that she was standing right out of the box.

"You're alive..." She gasped. She held out her hand to help pull me out.

"Thomas, how do you feel? You need rest, and we need to attend to your gash."

By then, with enough trouble, I had gotten out of the box. She was walking away, still talking, as I stood there. She turned around and looked at me.

"What are you doing? Don't you want to be healed?" She looked like she was agitated that I had stopped walking with her.

Everyone was shifting around uneasily, making uneasy notices probably because they were scared or confused.

I spoke with a trembling whisper.

"What do you mean?"

I shook my head in frustration. Raking my brain for any past information of what she was saying. Obviously she was talking about events that happened before I woke up in the box.

The problem was, I couldn't remember them. And I couldn't remember the people who were standing before me. That is, if I had known them all.

"Thomas? Who's Thomas? And why should I trust you? Out of all people the one with the blades is the one I should follow?"

Her anger had gone and she looked at me in a panic.

"Are you telling me that," she paused, and this time when her voice spoke it was much quieter. "That you don't remember what happened? You don't remember who you are?"

That's when the noises stopped. The shifting. All the noise ceased. And everyone looked straight at me.

"No, I'm sorry, but I don't."

The younger girl gasped. The woman walked towards me again, but I wasn't afraid this time. She came up to me and stood about four paces away. Then she spoke.

"Well, your name is Thomas Ward. You've been through a lot lately and by the looks of it your going to be through a hell lot more-"

"Grimalkin, what are you doing?" The girl said in a shouted whisper. I was just as confused as she was, but "Grimalkin" apparently was her name, kept her eyes on me and started to speak once more.

"I am going to ask you something and I want you to think about this as hard as you possibly can." She then spoke slowly. "Do you remember anything before you died?"

That was when I full out bursting with anger.

"Dead? Are you telling that I died? What are you talking about? And you decide to tell me that just now? Don't you know I'm confused as anything and you just think the best thing to tell me is that I died?"

She waited till I had stopped yelling to speak.

"Sometimes the truth hurts, I won't deny it." She glanced down at my chest. Exactly where the pain was coming from. I knew she wanted me to follow her gaze, so I did. Slowly I looked down to find something that caught my breath. My eyes widened in horror, as I saw the wound. There were scales, green scales growing on my skin over the cut. It looked as if the scales were my own body trying to heal itself.

I looked up and took a few steps back as I tried to speak but no words came out.

Grimalkin looked at me, with a depressed look, and it wasn't one of pity.

"What happened to me?" I stuttered.

She sighed and looked me straight in the eye.

"You were fighting an assassin just a few days ago. You had killed him, but, as you can see, he hadn't went down for nothing. I tried to save you, but I failed. I'm ashamed to say I didn't foresee your death. I had no idea of the out come of the fight. You lost your life, and we had you in the coffin ready for burial. That's when a white winged figure came here and did something to the coffin that I can not yet explain. But your back, your alive again."

I was silent. I said nothing. If I did, questions would have poured out of my mouth like there was no tomorrow. Well, there was going to be a tomorrow. A tomorrow of me and for everyone.

But the difference between me and them, was that they had a yesterday.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Worse by the Day**

We didn't really say much after that. I knew that if I said anything more, it would come out wrong. I really didn't want to be rude. The reason of me saying that is because,well... I was being rude. And I felt bad for it. Hadn't she told me that she tried to save my life? And all I did was stand there, yelling on about her words. She was just trying to help with my confusion, and I should have thanked her for it.

Besides, she probably is frustrated at the thought of my memory loss. I could tell, because at that one point in our conversation, she actually looked a little worried. Of corse she'd been surprised and relieved through out it all, I could tell that just by looking at her. But worried... That surprised me, because she doesn't seem like one to worry. So why me? I desperately wanted to know who I was. I wanted to know where I was, why I was here, and what specific role did I played in being here. I wanted to know more, too. I wanted to know my background, the people that surround me. I wanted to find more out about the young girl. She hardly spoke to me and seemed at lost for words most of he time.

But, here I was. Confusion overwhelming me. I didn't remember anything. All I knew was my name. But I started to learn and know more things, as my time healing and resting grew. People would come to me each day and tell me a little something that they thought would jog my memory. Nothing. And I felt bad, because every time someone left, they had an expression of failure.

Basically Grimalkin was the one who visited me the most. She had to, she was the one who made sure I was healing properly. I felt the same though. I felt like my gash hadn't been improving, and it hadn't been getting worse. To tell the truth, I felt like the memory loss was worse than the pain. If I got my memory back, the physical pain would probably be worse because I would have remembered the experience of the scene. But right now, my mental illness had disturbed me more.

Like I said, I couldn't tell if I had been improving. Grimalkin would come in, look at the gash, maybe give me some sort of medicine to help, but she never said anything. As I soon came to learn, something was wrong. It was wrong before, but I was not improving.

You see, I had begun to notice my cut a little more. The scales were not growing. It looked as if they were shrinking. I had no idea that was possible, but thought nothing of it. Frankly, I didn't know that growing scales on a human body was possible! But it wasn't just the outside of my body that started to change. Soon I was sweating most of the day for no reason. I would wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. I had barley been able to walk before, but now I couldn't walk at all. I was heading for the worst. And I knew, someone had to do something fast.

Grimalkin started to notice. She gave me herbs and more medicine, but to no use would it help. She looked in a panic as I got increasingly worse each day.

Truthfully I was in terrible pain. So bad that I ended up forgetting about the memory loss and put my hopes and focuses on getting better.

But one day, Grimalkin made a decision that helped me. Little did we know at the time, she had taken the first step to saving me from a second death.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Alice Deane**

I woke up in the middle of the night a few days later. Of corse I couldn't go back to sleep, so I sat there living through the pain. Then I noticed something. My location had changed. The room had medicine, herbs, and other things doctors use with sick patients ad I was laying on a different bed. It wasn't a bed meant for sleeping. It looked like a operation bed. I wasn't up for long till I herd a door open, two pairs of footsteps, and then the door close.

"Where is he?" I heard this from a girls voice, followed by Grimalkin's response.

"Follow me. I wouldn't be to loud, if he's sleeping we wouldn't want to wake him. He's not gotten much sleep lately."

I saw Grimalkin walk into room I was in, followed by a girl who looked about my age. She was pretty, with long black hair tied up in a bun, and brown eyes. She wore a beautiful blue dress that went down about to her ankles.

Once she saw me her mouth widened, and she ran over to the bed.

"Tom! Oh Tom," she said investigating me, tears welling in her eyes "Why? Ain't deserve anything like this, you did! You, but you... What happened?" She muttered.

I looked at her sorrowfully. She looked like she cared about this more than anyone.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember what happened. I don't really remember anything. Grimalkin tells me I died, I know how, and I know my name now. It's Thomas, what's your name?" At that she had a look of horror on her face. Tears streamed down her face as she turned to Grimalkin, who was leaning against the wall.

"Grimalkin," she said sobbing, "what happened to him...?"

Grimalkin came forward to Alice. It seemed to me that she called the girl here, but didn't tell her why she needed to come.

"Alice, I want you to be calm. Tom here was fighting an assassin a few weeks ago. He ended up dead with a blade through the chest and was about to be buried till he came back to life. He's alive now," she looked at me sadly," but I fear we will lose him again soon." She sighed. "His mothers inheritance has saved him. Scales covered up the wound. It seemed to clean it a little too. But... Somehow the scales are shrinking or disappearing. What ever is happening, he's not improving. He's been unable to sleep. He's had bad fevers. As you found out, he can't remember who he is..."

Alice looked back at me.

"Please, Tom. You have to remember! It ain't worth living if you can't remember me, please... I can't live with out you..."

There was a silence. I sighed.

"I'm sorry, I really am. I can't remember anything before the accident. I don't remember you or anyone. I even don't remember who I am..."

She turned, and head in hands, ran out of the room. Soon I herd a door shut, I knew she had left, and I felt really bad for her.

"Grimalkin?"

"Look, I've brought Alice here to help you. She's one of the best healers I know. Hopefully she can get you on a permeate road to recovery."

"Wait, what about my memory?"

She paused before speaking and dropped her gaze.

"I don't know..." She turned to leave.

"Well, if I can't remember her, can you tell me who she is?" I asked.

Grimalkin stopped in her tracks, and with out turning to face me she answered slowly.

"Alice Deane. She's a witch... And your best friend."

I didn't know what to think of that so I just said nothing. She left me alone, and of corse I couldn't go back to sleep. I desperately wanted to leave that bed. I wanted to move around because I had been laying in bed for the past few days. I found that annoying and I needed to stretch out my legs. So with difficulty, I managed to sit up. I slid out of the bed slowly and eased my body weight on to my feet. The cut seemed to effect most parts of my body. Like when I walked, my skin would move and stretch. This caused a problem with my cut, it made me limp. At this thought, I realized I had been paying more close attention to things as the days went by. This was a good thing... Right? It had to be...

The place that I was staying had just the room, which was the room I had been in, and a small hallway, leading to the door to out side. I carefully made my way out the door. There was a small bank a few yards away from the front steps. I thought I saw something sitting on the side of it. I took a closer look, the girl was there. She was crying, her shoulders gently moving up and downward. She was hugging she legs, which were kept close to her chest. Her forehead was touching her knees.

I eventually made my way down the steps, then walked over toward her. She stopped crying when she heard my footsteps stop.

"Please, go away Grimalkin."

"Grimalkin left earlier, you didn't know?" I replied.

"Tom! Oh, it's you," she said frantically wiping the tears from her eyes.

"No, I didn't know she left. I thought you were her. Why are you up, Tom? You ain't in any state to be moving around all that much..." She said trailing off. She stopped crying, and the air was filled with a silence.

"Why are you out here, it late, really late." I said, sitting down beside her.

"I just need some time alone. It's a lot to take in..."

"Well looks like you won't have any alone time while I'm here." She smiled, it was a small smile, and I returned it.

"I guess not." At that, she just stared at the sky, the moonlight sparkling in here wet eyes.

"Hey," she looked at me slowly, "what's wrong?" I asked her gently.

She sighed.

"Tom, right now, If you were to remember me, you'd be mad. You'd despise the fact that I'm here. And I have a lot of explaining to do. Cause I did something I should have done way differently..."

"Well, Grimalkin told me we were friends. If we were good friends, I'd forgive you, wouldn't I?"

"Ain't that simple. I did something to protect you, but you didn't know that and it broke your heart, Tom."

"Maybe I'll understand that. If I was a true friend, I'd listen, and forgive you."

"Maybe you would, but that would only happen if you remembered. Nothing will ever be the same again if you don't remember."

I dropped my gaze, and she looked back up at the sky as another silence fell over us, till she spoke softly.

"Nothing will ever be the same, Tom. Your eyes had something special to them before. Something I can't explain. But now, it's gone..."

I sighed.

"Well, remember or not, I think I should know your name. What was it again?"

She turned her gaze back to me.

"I'm Alice. Alice Deane."

"Alice... " determined to remember that name. I slowly managed to stand up like always. Once up I held my hand out to her. She she saw it had I used all the strength I had left to pull her up.

"I'm going back inside now. I'll see you later Alice."

Alice nodded grimly.

"I should see you soon, and try to help you with your pain."

I nodded, then turned a made my way inside, to the bed, and under the covers.

"Alice..." I whispered, as I finally fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Girl Gathering **

I awoke suddenly the next day, annoyed by the sound of four female voices, which was a few, and I struggled to get back to sleep.

How could I when they were yelling so loud? Besides, I felt worse than ever now, maybe that's because I went to see Alice in the night. What ever it was, I wanted it to be over.

"Hey, please." I said trying to sit up the best I could, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. One girl came out from behind the wall, it was Grimalkin, and she came across to help me up. Two follower after her, both looking annoyed with each other. It was Alice, but of the other girl I couldn't identify. She had blonde hair, and wasn't that bad looking. But she did look as if she absolutely despised Alice.

"Well this is a surprise!" She said, in a sarcastic tone.

Alice grabbed her hair and yanked it so had, the girl screamed fit to wake the dead. I had a feeling she just did that to annoy me, and It was working.

"Stop it!" Grimalkin hissed through her teeth. "Jenny, come here."

The younger girl I had seen when I first "came back to life", at the time along with Grimalkin, walked into the room, close to tears.

"Hello, what's your name?" I asked gently. She wiped the tears from her eyes before speaking.

"I'm Jenny, master."

"Master?" Jenny then held her head in her hands, and started to sob quietly while Alice dropped her gaze and the blonde tutted. I looked at Grimalkin, confused. She only sighed before speaking to Jenny, with out answering my question.

"Jenny, let me tell you what were going to do to him. I want you to know because you will not be allowed in here to witness it."

"Okay," she said, containing herself, "I'm ready."

"Alice is going to give medicine to Tom to make his cut numb." She looked at Alice. "And before it wears off, she must deal with the cut by cleaning it, then stitching it back together." She looked back to Jenny. "Hopefully the medicine will make him unconscious and, hopefully, jog his memory." She looked at me now. "We hope for the best."

"What about my headaches? Sores and pains? Cuts? Bruises?"

Alice answered for Grimalkin.

"Some will have to heal in time, but I can fix the cuts and headaches."

I nodded.

"Alice will perform the surgery on you later, we must gather the materials."

"Why Alice?" It's not that I didn't trust her, I just wondered why any other witch couldn't do it. That's exactly what I told them.

"Alice is very skilled in the art." Grimalkin insisted. "She knows her stuff from the back of her hand." At this, the one girl next to Alice opened her mouth, probably ready to speak her mind, but Grimalkin gave her a hard stare. I could tell her and Alice didn't get along.

"We will see you later to check on you, then perform the procedure." At that, Grimalkin nodded and left, Jenny close on her heals.

Nobody spoke, until Alice opened her mouth to speak, when the other girl beat her to it. And cruel smirk plastered across her face.

"It'll be way worse than you think." She said flatly.

"Don't listen to her, Tom, full of rubbish she is." Alice said, mostly to the girl then to me.

"Oh really? How come I'm the best scryer their is?"

"Don't get above yourself. Your just bringing this up because Grimalkin addressed my healing skills!"

The girl folded her arms harshly, glaring hard at Alice, who was, in no doubt, doing the same.

"Am not! You've always been jealous of me, Alice Deane. You and I both know it. Jealous of everything! My scrying, my looks, my skills and leadership..." I could clearly agree with Alice that this girl was defiantly above herself, holding her head high and and sound of authority in her voice.

Alice didn't say anything, she just looked at her, disgusted. She wanted Alice to break, but what would she say?

"... Even jealous of me and Tom, you are." She said with a smirk.

I was very confused at this statement, I mean, I didn't even know the girls name! Before me or Alice could respond, the girl ran toward me, leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips, I had absolutely no time to react, and it was over before I knew it. If I could have reacted, I would have tried to push or kick her away, but my body was still very sore. She turned back toward Alice, her mouth wide open as tears flooded her eyes.

She only spoke so shortly.

"Why him?" She looked at me, embarrassed, and ran out of the room.

"Alice!" But she had already left.

I looked at the girl, angry.

"Who are you?"

She smiled malevolently.

"The names Mab, and just so you know, that Alice isn't to be trusted. When you get your memory back, it won't be me your yelling at."

And with that, she left.

**Please let me know what you think! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Outburst **

I couldn't do anything after that. Of corse I couldn't physically leave my bed, but I couldn't think. My mind was whirling all day, as I waited nervously for the surgery. I don't think that helped at all, my edginess twisting my insides. I just wanted everything to be better. But that couldn't happen unless Alice succeeded in my healing, not only that, nothing would ever be the same again unless I got my memory back. I didn't need to learn a lot to know that.

Sitting there gave me lots of time to think, and lots of time feeling worse I've ever had sense I came back. It was a feeling I found very hard to explain. The pain to see Alice so upset like that, gave me an even worse pain than my injuries were physically giving me. I desperately wanted to talk to her, but I didn't know what to say.

No body came back into the room until later that day, judging by the very little light shinning in through the window, it was evening, and It was Mab who had come. I wasn't going to tolerate her for long.

"What do you want?" I asked her bitterly. She seemed to take my tone in surprise.

"You do know that the procedure is more complicated than Grimalkin made it sound, right? I thought you would be more worried..."

"It's none of your business how I feel. Now leave." I told her flatly.

"Why rush me out so soon?" Mab asked, faking the innocent pang in her voice. "I just want to talk-"

"Well I don't! Go, now, I'm not in the mood for you right now." She was pushing it, and she knew that, but didn't leave.

"Your not acting like Tom, even without the memory..." She faked a sigh, and everything she was saying and doing were all sarcastic. I hated it, I'd had enough of her. She opened her her mouth to speak, but I beat her to it.

"No! Don't even speak of it! Your not making anything better at all! Why did you even come here? Your worthless to me right now, just taking up space! I've only seen you twice and have already had enough of you!"

I would have kept going, but with each sentence, a stabbing pain went through my head. And something flickered, a sense that I shouldn't be saying these things to Mab. I didn't know why, because in my mind, at that moment, she deserved it. I eventually got myself in a sitting position, yet she still hadn't left.

"Why are you still here?" I asked, now yelling at her.

"Leave me alone! Get away from me-" I let out a loud urge of pain. What was going on? I now started sweating across my brow. A door opened, and a pair of footsteps ran inside. It was Grimalkin and Alice. Grimalkin instantly started giving orders, loud ones at that.

"Alice, start, now! Here," she handed Alice a bag, and walked back to Mab.

Alice rummaged through the bag.

"Mab, leave us, now." Grimalkin said in a stern voice.

Before leaving, Mab looked at me again.

"Go!" I shouted. I let out a gasp of pain again. As Mab had left, Grimalkin walked toward me, observing me.

"What?" I urged rudely. I shook my head, I couldn't control what I was saying. What was going on?

Grimalkin seemed to understand though, and turned to Alice.

"We'll need the injector, Alice. You won't be able to do the procedure with him conscious."

"I was really hoping we could avoid this." Alice told her in response.

"I was too..." Then Grimalkin was handed a device with a needle.

"What? No, please!" I was begging, why?

Alice started to tear up.

"I'm sorry Tom, it's the only way. Please, let her."

I looked at Grimalkin anxiously. I then started to struggle as they held me down. But Alice turned away as Grimalkin inserted the sleep medicine.

I stopped struggling,and my vision started to blur. My last sight was of Alice, as Grimalkin's voice was slowly fading into darkness.

"Hurry, Alice, we don't have much time!"

And that was it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The Jar**

I slowly opened my eye's, feeling something intertwined with my hand and fingers. I looked sideways, to see Alice. When she noticed I was awake, her eyes widened, and moved her hand quickly as she stood up.

"Tom! How do you feel?" She asked anxiously, looking over me.

"I do feel way better, actually." I told her as she calmed down. I smiled at her, and she forced a smile too, I could tell she was on edge by the way she bit her lip.

"I gave you extra medicine to help with other problems such as your pains you said you were having. While you were asleep, performed the surgery, I did. Grimalkin helped a little too. We managed to clean the cut pretty well, then I had to put more medicine and inject other things so that I could make sure all signs of infections were nowhere to be seen. Then I stitched you up..."

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She still had a worried expression, but I'd told her I felt fine. At that she looked at me as if I was crazy, considering the fact that me asking the question to her instead of the other way around wasn't normal.

But then she realized I was talking about her anxiousness.

"Nothing, you've just been asleep for a while now. Three days exactly-" She said, sitting back down.

"Alice, that's not that long." I told her earnestly. She dropped her gaze and quietly mumbled, "To me it is..."

"Anyway... I was hoping that making you unconscious would, jog your memory maybe?" She asked with hopeful bright eyes.

I felt extremely bad, and waited a while before I spoke. I thought hard about it too.

"... No, I'm sorry..." I whispered lightly.

She sighed.

"Do you want to try and walk, Tom?"

I nodded, and threw the blankets off me. Then I swung my legs around and sat up, so that I was now sitting on the side of my bed. Alice stood up and put a arm around my shoulders and under my arm for support. Standing didn't take long, and I was happy, to realize that my cut looked way better than before.

Once perfectly balanced on my feet, Alice slowly let go a took a few steps back, giving me space, but also close enough to rush forward and grab me if need be.

I nodded in her direction, and and started to walk across the room.

Amazement plastered across Alice's face as we both witnessed how much progress the surgery had given me! I still had a limp, but not anywhere near how terribly bad it was before. And nothing hurt, I could raise my arms and my skin stretching while doing so would cause no pain. I looked over at Alice and smiled, tears prickling in her beautiful eyes. This was a big moment for me, of what I had heard, I died a bad death. Now I was sanding here, walking with no pain and no winces.

Grimalkin came into the room, holding a jar that seemed to be filled with liquid.

"How's that cut of yours doing?" She asked, with a wicked smile on her face. By that, I could tell she probably already knew about my improvement.

"Way better than before, thank you." I told her, although addressing my words to both her and Alice.

Grimalkin nodded and turned to Alice. I hadn't said anything to her yet about my memory's absence still, but by what she said next I concluded that she already knew about it.

"I've finished making the potion that you said might help him remember, Alice." She walked over to Alice and gave her the jar. Alice looked at it, and her eyes widened yet again with hope.

"Yes, Grimalkin! This could work!" After examining it one last time, she walked over to me.

"Tom, this is one last thing we'd like you to try. We hope it will make your memory flood back, as that's what it's supposed to do. Other than this I don't know what else could work."

She handed me the jar and I looked at it thoroughly. It didn't look as worse as it could have been, so I accepted it, and drank it slowly, while the two girls waited patiently.

I put the jar down, and we waited, looking for any sign of it kicking in.

After about five minuets, we knew it had taken to long. Grimalkin's eyes were downcast, as tears were streaming down Alice's face. She shook her head in disbelief.

"No. What if we tri-" I tried talk, but before I could finish, Alice had rushed into my arms, still sobbing. I returned her embrace wishing there could be some other way to help myself... But I had to except what had happened. We stood there, the sound of nothing but Alice crying, tears falling helplessly down her face.

After a few moments, I let go, as Alice wiped her eyes, looking lost.

But then as my expression changed dramatically, so did hers.

I stepped back, my eyes traveling from her to Grimalkin, back and forth, then finally to the floor. Breathing heavily, an expression of horror on my face, I looked back up at Alice, to see her catch her breath as she understood.

Everything, every last part of anything... My death, my career, my life... I had remembered. Remembered everything.

**Please let me know what you think!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Without Thought**

It all came back to me, everything! I didn't have time to think, because before I could stop myself, words flooded from my mouth.

"Grimalkin! The Kobalos! Were running out of time. Wait, the Starblade, what happened to it, and Alice," I faced her, a wave of fury spread through out me like wild fire. Both girls were taken aback when they herd how loud my voice then became. In a way, it reminded me of my old master, sometimes making sure he was well herd by speaking in a loud booming voice.

"You! I told you to never come near me again! Leave now-"

"Tom, stop, calm down, we will explai-"

"No! Stop Grimalkin, I don't want to hear it! Alice, you leave now, while I give you a freebee."

Alice didn't move, almost seeming frozen to the spot. I rushed forward to her quickly, not even knowing what I was going to do when I reached her, when Grimalkin came forward swiftly, blocking my way and grabbing my arms which were not desperately trying break free.

"Well, leave! What are you waiting for?" I yelled, still being held back by Grimalkin.

She looked me in the eye, her big brown eyes filling with tears.

"What happened to you?" She simply asked me quietly, as my anger lessened, and for a moments hesitation, wondered the same. Before I could say anything more, she ran out, slamming the door behind her. I watched her leave, then Grimalkin released me. I was almost sweating and breathing heavily.

"You remember everything?" She asked me for confirmation.

"Yes, I do, Grimalkin."

"Then you'll understand that we still have more work to attend to. You died on us right when we needed you most."

She said this in a normal tone, but I guess I took it the wrong way before bursting out at her.

"Do you think I could control that? Of corse I wasn't the one who made my own self go out there and challenge the Shaiksa assassin! You made me do it!"

"I know." She hissed, just as loud as I was being.

"We will talk about this later. I will fill you in on anything you missed over the past days. But for now, I think you need to talk to Alice."

"Grimalkin, right now she is the least of our worries, we need to plan a-"

"No, we have time, little, but still, time all he same. What you need to do is talk to Alice. I don't know if you are forgetting the fact that not only did she save your life, again, but put an end to your memory loss." She said, holding up the jar which had contained the potion I drank to restore my memory.

After that she paused, then when she spoke it was almost in a whisper.

"Malevolent witch or not, she just saved your life," she said very slowly. "Maybe if you talked to her she would have some explaining to do..." She trailed off. After a while, Grimalkin walked toward the door, but paused before leaving.

"I know your angry and confused. You just died, why wouldn't you be? But you've a job to do. Right now more than one person is depending on you. In a few days we will plan out our uprising. Right now, you need to calm down and rest." And with that, she left me standing there, dazed at myself.

Why had I acted like that? Sure, Alice and I had parted ways, as she now was a malevolent witch, but I don't think I should talk to anyone in that manner so quickly and with out any thought before hand. Plus, the way she looked at me...I shook my head, switching to a different reason. My dad would have non of it either, and it would have made him disappointed. I needed to apologize to her, but that would be hard, so I wanted to get it over with quickly, still intending to get my point across that I was sorry, because looking back over how I acted, I was.

I walked out side, and searched for Alice. I almost gave up my search before I finally found her sitting on a bench as I stopped walking, realizing how quite a way's away from where I had just been. So I took a deep breath, and walked forward.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Alice's Reveal**

Alice was looking up at the sky, and as I grew closer, I could tell she had been crying. Right now though, she made no sound.

"Alice. I need to talk to you." I told her flatly as I came to a halt.

In response she just sighed and got up slowly and started to walk away.

"Alice, come on, I need to tell you something."

She ignored me and continued to walk away. I briskly ran forward to catch up to her a grabbed her shoulder to turn her around. It didn't hurt her, she just looked as if in pain because I was going to talk to her.

"Hear me out, I want to tell you-"

"And I'd listen if I knew you weren't going to yell at me for no reason!" She yelled. She looked me in the eye, then shook her head and walked past me, back to the bench. She sat down facing the other direction and she put her chin in her palms.

"What do you want to tell me?" She said quietly and impatiently.

"Alice," I said, starting to follow her back towards the bench.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you, your right I had no reason to in the matter. I guess after remembering my death triggered emotions I couldn't control. Looking back on it, I had no right to say that to you. So I'm sorry, and thank you again for saving my life," I sat down on the bench, not to close to her, "I'm really grateful that you did that for me." I said in a more hushed tone. It was true, she was a bad person, but she saved my life. Without her I wouldn't be here right now.

She sat there and said nothing and put her head in her hands. After a while I got up, with a simple, "Goodnight," and started to walk away. But I only got in a few paces before Alice sprang up from the bench and yelled after me.

"Wait! Don't go, I want to tell you something now." She said through sobs.

I turned my head sideways.

"What do you mean?" Alice stood there for a moment or two, not saying a thing. Before she finally spoke, she sighed and took a few steps toward me.

"You remember actually being injured, right? You remember all that happened after you woke up?" She asked.

I knew what she meant by, "woke up." She was talking about after came back to life and stepped out of the coffin.

"Yes, I do..." I told her.

"Then you'll remember that night you told me that you would listen to me If I ever wanted to tell you something important." I nodded, still facing the opposite direction though. I remembered saying that if I was a true friend, then I would listen. Me and her weren't friends, but, I couldn't just walk away from her, I didn't want to be more rude than I was being earlier.

"Look." She said softly.

As I turned around around I saw quickly what she was showing me.

Alice's upper leg had had a moon shape on it. Every witch has one, and the more fuller it was, the more malevolent the witch was. A full moon meant the witch was a fully fledged malevolent witch. A while ago when I had talked with Alice, she explained this to me. And her mark had been full.

But now, the moon was a little less than a quarter away from full.

"I wanted to show you that before you doubted..."

"Doubted what? Say what you need to say Alice, quickly." I was running out of patience and didn't feel like being messed with.

"Tom, I am not malevolent."

At that I turned and started walking away, calling back over my shoulder.

"Alice, I'm really not in the mood."

She ran up and got in front of me, blocking me from going any further.

"You have to listen to me! Your not letting me explain myself! Tom, please!"

"I don't feel like being lied to at the moment, Alice."

"Am not Tom! Please, the mark wasn't full, you saw it yourself just a second ago!"

I tried to get past her, but she kept on getting in front of me. I could have easily nudged her out of the way, and I was just about to do so before I recalled what Grimalkin had told me before coming here to see Alice; "Maybe if you talked to her she would have some explaining to do..."

I stopped moving and so did Alice, her eyes wide with only what I could assume was hope.

"Explain yourself." I told her quietly. She'd already hurt me enough by betraying me, I just really hoped she wasn't going to lie too. What she said next was so fast I had to concentrate deeply to keep up.

"Never wanted to hurt you, I did. When I met Lukrasta I didn't fall in love with him. I didn't love him and never will. He threatened me Tom! And... I'm scared." She put her head in her hands for a few moments, then continued.

"He said that if I didn't go with him and give him some of my power he would get to you and do horrible things. I desperately wanted your help but I also didn't want you to be distracted from the Fiend... Me consulting you would just add more to the already huge worry's piled up on your shoulders. When you were finished he made me continue to stay with him because he wasn't finished with me. I had to act against you so you wouldn't suspect I was being drained of power. I know it was painful for you to see me that way, but nothing compared to how much pain it caused me to hide things from you. I stood there knowing I was hurting you, but..." Alice's eyes started to water and in no time tears were flowing down her cheeks. "I was to scared to tell you until now."

I didn't know what to think. One part was telling me to be cautious cause anything could be a trap or a lie. The other part of me was desperately wanting to hold her in my arms and never let her go. If what she said was true, than the Alice I once knew had never left, and had been in acting against her will this whole time.

But... I couldn't completely trust everything she said. I wanted to bad for everything that she was saying to be true, but I just needed more proof.

"Alice..." I said softly. She looked up at me and stared at me, eyes full of tears. Our eyes locked, for the first time in months had I never had so many mixed emotions and feelings.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Lukrasta**

We stood there like that, waiting for what I was going to say next. Honestly I didn't know what to do or say.

"I- I just don't- Alice." I sighed, confused.

Alice looked down and started to speak softly.

"It's really hard to believe me, ain't it? I don't blame you, but, I wish-"

"Tom, Alice, back to the house, now!" It was Grimalkin. She was a while away but close enough to see that she was signaling us back towards the house.

"We better hurry." Alice said running off towards Grimalkin. I followed her back to the house, running the whole way back, once we were inside, Alice started to pace back and forth across the floor her eyes wide with fear. Grimalkin came in and tried to calm Alice down.

"Please don't tell me." Alice told her flatly. Grimalkin nodded and looked at me.

"What's going on?" I asked her.

"Lukrasta, I saw him just outside-"

"How?" Alice screamed, she looked terrified. "How can he be here now? I thought, I thought..."

"Alice, it'll be okay. We need to go out there and find him." I told her.

"No Tom, won't let you! You don't understand how much power he has! He took mine for his advantages! And that's to kill you, it is. Please don't go out there!"

"No, stop Alice, this is just like last time. You doubted that I could take him down, you were wrong."

"I didn't doubt you Tom. I was worried and didn't want to see you hurt." She said in a quiet voice.

"Oh sur-"

"Stop! Now!" Grimalkin hissed.

We were then quiet, until Grimalkin spun around, knifes in her hand and thrusting them toward something that I couldn't see because of the wall, so fast that it was almost impossible to keep up with what she was doing. I herd a thud, then Grimalkin hastily backed up, blades up in a defense position.

Alice screamed backed up alongside me, Grimalkin on my opposite side.

Then the worst thing happened, especially sense I wasn't armed.

Lukrasta stepped out from the walls shadows.

"Alice, where were you? I don't recall me allowing you to leave..." He said in a heavily sarcastic tone.

Alice stepped in front of me, screaming at him.

"Don't hurt him! Please don't!"

"Step out of the way, Alice. Now." He told her dangerously.

Alice said nothing, instead she did something that made me clench my fist and almost burst out in anger. She walked right up to him and kissed him.

Once they stopped Alice smiled, then look transfixed. She opened her mouth and started to speak loudly.

"What did you do?"

Lukrasta smirked malevolently.

"Oh I was just showing Tom here what we've been up to during your absence."

"No... Tom," she looked at me and began to speak very fast.

"He made me! He's controlling me don't listen to him I didn't think-"

She didn't finish talking before Lukrasta put a knife to her throat.

"Let her go Lukrasta." I yelled.

"Not before I get what I need, besides, what are you going to do about it? If I recall correctly, you just died..."

No one said anything.

"What do you want?" I told him darkly.

"Don't you see Tom," Grimalkin hissed. "He's going to drain Alice's power..."

She chucked a throwing knife at him with great force, which would have impaled his chest, if it hadn't halted in midair and fell to the ground.

After that my vision blurred, and I herd Grimalkin but the ground before I followed. My last thought was of Alice.


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm really sorry guys, I was re-reading my past two chapters, and they seem a little tardy. I really hope you like this chapter cause I tried to one it up from the last two I didn't do so well on! Let me know what you think.**

_Chapter 11: Trapped_

As I began to awake, I saw Grimalkin's across from me, her hands bound by a chain that was tied to a wall. She was awake and starring at the floor, her face blank and empty of emotion. My hands were bound as well, so tightly it didn't seem possible to escape to easily. I looked about me, we were in a small simple room with no windows and only one door. After I noticed all my surroundings, I remembered why I was there.

Lukrasta! Alice! Me and Grimalkin need to help her, who knows what Lukrasta is planning to do with her?

"Grimalkin, we have to help Alice! Where's Lukrasta now? I said, trying to yank on the chains. At that Grimalkin continued to stare at the floor and was utterly silent.

"Grab one of your blades, maybe we can loosen the chains or something." I said, still frantically trying to get free somehow. But she just sat there and did nothing. What was wrong with her, was she okay?

"Grimalkin!" I whisper shouted. I was desperate to get away and save Alice, who knows how much time we had to help her. Finally she responded, but only through a deep sigh. I stared at her, waiting for her to say something, and when she did, I regretted ever trying to get her to talk.

"I don't have my weapons," she started, in a quiet whisper. "Lukrasta took them while we were out. When I came to, Alice was shaking me, desperate to wake me up. She told me that Lukrasta was going to drain her completely of power, and that she wouldn't survive." Grimalkin's voice got even quieter. "That's why she was so scared when she realized he was here."

I didn't say anything, everything was terrible. Why did it have to be this way? Alice and me were in a confusion of thoughts towards each other, but... I didn't want to loose her. I just could help feeling that way...

After a moment or so, I spoke to Grimalkin, confidence strong in my voice even though my head was telling me that this was going to be easier said then done.

"Well we have to get free and try to save her before Lukrasta is completely through with her-"

"We can't save Alice anymore. She woke me up hours ago. She's probably dead by now. There's nothing we can do," Grimalkin exclaimed, her voice rising steadily. "Lukrasta even came here for the Starblade, and guess what? He probably has that too..."

There was a few moments of silence, me being shocked at the idea of Alice being dead...

"Alice can't be dead, she can't be! We have to try and save her, she could be still alive-"

"Think, would you?" Grimalkin hissed. "What are the odds that she is still alive?" My heart dropped. Alice was probably dead, I guess my heart was just trying to make me believe the impossible.

"Well what do you expect us to do? Sit here waiting for Lukrasta to come back?"

"Neither of us have weapons, so as of now I don't see what else were supposed to do." She replied, pulling hastily on the chain to show it's strength. I lowered my gaze from Grimalkin. I thought hard, though the solution didn't come to me, and the future seemed glum.

"Your teeth! Use your teeth to bite through the chain! I exclaimed, but to my dismay turned her body and lifted her tied hands behind her back to tell me that the chain want long enough to reach her mouth. I was desperate to get free. If Alice really was dead, Lukrasta would be sorry. I would make him regret killing Alice... Regret severely...

My thoughts caused a wave of fury to wash through me, and I yanked and pulled on the chain, making it clatter, making it press up and bang against the wall. In doing so I herd a click. The screws that held the chain to the wall, they were loosening! I kept at that for a while, loosening the screws more and more, but actually making them unscrew completely seemed impossible. When I stopped and looked at Grimalkin, a smirk full of mischief plastered across her face.

"And I before we went out I think I vaguely remember Lukrasta enjoying Alice's sweet welcome back kiss..." She said with a hint of sarcasm.

Alice was forced to do that against her will, I knew that and so did Grimalkin, but just the thought of them kissing sent a wave of jealousy and anger through me.

I stood up angrily and yelled Grimalkin's name. It was then that I noticed, I was standing. I turned and looked back at the wall, the chain was torn from the screws. I looked back at Grimalkin.

"Or maybe Lukrasta was forcing her..." She said darkly, smiling and showing the pointed teeth within.

"Yeah, sure," I said, shrugging off my outrage. Grimalkin had planned to make me pull out the chain in anger, but how was she supposed to break free?

"Alright, so... What if you loosened the chain then tried to gnaw through it with your teeth? Unless you want to just break through the whole thing like me..."

She started tugging on the chain, and after a moment or two I tried to help her, and together we managed to pull the chain out enough so that she could just barley reach her mouth to it. After quite a few moments I became anxious. To my relief though, she finally managed to bite through them. She stood up by my side.

"Well, Spook, what do you recommend we do next?" She asked me. I knew the answer in no time at all.

We were going to get back Lukrasta. I wanted to get him back for putting Alice in such a bad position. Get him back for taking Alice away from me.

Get him back for making me angry.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Find Him**

"We need to find Lukrasta, quickly. This time I will not be so lenient when his life is in my hands." At that Grimalkin looked at me with a surprised, questioning sort of way.

"You could have killed me but didn't take the chance?" She said, looking surprised and yet a little impressed. I didn't know why, did she think I couldn't do it? I was just surprised she didn't know somehow. Most witches could know things without being told.

"He was down at the end of my blade... Alice begged me not to kill him... Anyway" shrugging off the memory, "We need to get your blades and my staff back." I said, stepping out of the door. Grimalkin followed, but as soon as I turned back around from closing the door, Jenny was sprinting toward me, her hands full.

"Jenny! You've brought our things! I'm glad your okay, where have you been?" I asked, full of relief.

"Is your memory back, master Ward?"

"Yes, Jenny, it is." I said in a hurry, me and Grimalkin grabbing our weapons. Grimalkin took all of her blades while I got my silver chain and staff. But the one thing Jenny didn't have, was the Starblade.

"I've been hoping against hope that it was! I'm so glad your okay!" She exclaimed happily. I nodded and smiled at her in reassurance.

"Child, where did you find our weapons?"

"I saw a man throwing them into a stream about a mile back. He was carrying a girl, she was screaming fit to burst!"

"Alice... Jenny, where-what direction?" I asked in a panic to get to Lukrasta. In response to this Jenny acted surprised that I hadn't known.

"Back not far from the house," she said, pointed back toward where the house. "I've been looking for you all morning. What's been happening?"

"Only a mile? We can get there soon enough! Jenny, I'll have to explain later. As of now me and Grimalkin need to take care of something. As soon as we get back hide somewhere and wait till I come back, okay? Thank you for getting our things, we'd no idea where they were."

"Remember last time you told me to stay hidden till you came back?" She said with disappointment that she couldn't come with us.

"Jenny, I'm sorry, this is really important and I'll have to further explain later." She nodded.

"We've wasted enough time already! Come on, let's go..." I said, starting off at a sprint. Grimalkin followed, with Jenny bringing up the rear.

We got there averagely fast which was good. Jenny went and hid, where, I don't know, but she assured me she would be far away from danger.

"Where do you think Lukrasta is?" I asked Grimalkin.

"He can't be far from here, let's have a look around." She responded, already running toward the house to investigate. My hand tightened around my staff as I ran down to the lake. He had to be somewhere...

I kept looking hastily walking and running the lakes borders. I saw someone lying down, close to the water, yet I was on the complete opposite side of the water. I walked closer, and my heart sank.

It was Alice.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: The Starblade**

"Alice!" I yelled, already running to get to her, as she was on the opposite side of the lake. I didn't stop running till I reached her, quickly laying my staff down on the grassy bank as I went down on my knees. I leaned over her, observing, as it looked like, a fairly recent wound on her upper arm. I lifted her head lightly so that her face was facing mine. Her eyes were closed, and it was almost impossible to tell if she was breathing...

"Alice, wake up... Come on Alice, it's me Tom! Your safe now, come on, wake up. Please Alice..." My fears were already high and my hopes were low, so this only concluded the very worst... My eyes began to water and tears began to flow endlessly down my face. I couldn't help it... I didn't want Alice dead at all, life without her would be tremendously different... I didn't like nor want life without Alice. I sat there, Alice's lifeless body resting in my arms, depression washing over me. I gently laid Alice's head back on the ground as I stood up. I picked up my staff, almost feeling like falling over with deep emotions. It was then that I herd footsteps. I turned, expecting to see Grimalkin. But to my disappointment, it was Lukrasta with a nasty smile and evil spark in his eyes.

I beat him to speak, no trace of a tremble in my voice, just anger.

"You shouldn't have done that. I've already warned you not to mess with me. You've made me angry, Lukrasta, and this time I won't let you off so easily." Though I said this with much authority, what chance did I have against him? All I had was my staff, and last time he'd try to use his magic against me the Starblade had protected me. I didn't have the Starblade right now, and he was way more powerful due to Alice's additional power within his use. Not to mention this would be the first real fight after my injuries. I wasn't confident on that note either, because although Alice had helped me so much with a major improvement, I still walked with a slight limp. If anything interfered with the wound's stitches, it could come undone, couldn't it? It all depended on how tight they were. If the cut was reopened, I wouldn't be up to any fight.

"Your really hard to get rid of, aren't you?" He asked me. Of corse he didn't intend for an answer, but he was walking a thin line considering my patience.

"More difficult than you are, that's for sure. You need a good begging for your life to be spared." I told him, my hand tightening its grasp on my staff. I knew I'd made him angry. He probably would have laughed at my first sentence, thinking it humorous that I could beat him. Well, I didn't see what was so funny about that because I've done it before, and I could do it again. But, very suddenly, he muttered something under his breath causing almost a invisible forcefield to push me back a few feet and slam backwards on the ground, after that he pulled out a sword, the same sword from our last battle. He came at me fast, once close, he thrust his sword down fast to be encountered with my staff, redirecting his aim, I sprung up from the ground than quickly ducked and missed his swing toward my head. I jabbed at his chest, only for him to take a large step back and come back swiftly with another jab, which went right in front of my chest as I had pivoted sideways. The next hit I wasn't so lucky to miss. He pierced me quite deeply in the left leg. I'd had it, the pain was terrible, but it was more anger that washed through me than pain. I wasn't going to let anymore blades inject me. I was determined to focus and come back hard, even though my leg felt unless as ever.

I looked back up at him as he pulled out the tip of his sword, me gasping in pain while he did so. I shot him a thrust toward his chest, upper arm and neck, all to which he blocked. Gradually I began to draw in close on him, forcing him to back up. My leg was feeling worse but, recently being pierced in the abdomen, made it a little better in comparison. I noticed Grimalkin running silently toward us, without Lukrasta's notice. At the last moment Grimalkin griped a blade, still running, and made aim quickly and accurately.

"Duck!" She yelled, throwing the knife with great force and, as I had ducked, impaled Lukrasta in the right shoulder. As I went to stand I used my foot to trip him while he was distracted. He fell to the ground, muttering again, as the ground seemed to move and me and Grimalkin fell as well. We got right back up, along with him, now yanking the blade out of his shoulder. It had pierced him deeply. Grimalkin went forward, drawing in for another attack. I quickly planned how to work my way back in to help her when I herd someone.

"Take this!" It was Jenny! I turned to see what she was holding out to me. The Starblade! I wondered how she got it and where but quickly thought better to ask because of time.

"Thank you Jenny, now please, go on!" At that, after looking worriedly at my leg, she turned and ran rather quickly out of site. I turned, bent down and dropped my staff, then went back over to where Grimalkin was facing Lukrasta. She made the slightest of glances in my direction toward the sword. She ducked to a last attempt as I ran up to him, as fast as I could from behind and thrust the blade into his back, which although disturbingly, came out through his chest. I pulled it out with a great force as I watched him fall to his knees and fall utterly silent.

We stood there breathing hard, I limped over to my staff, and picked it up so I could lean on it. I looked at Grimalkin, who came forward. She paused and then looked past me, brushing past me to get by. I turned around and saw she was heading to Alice, still laying helplessly on the ground just like before. I followed her slowly. She was already bent next to her, examining her closely.

"This is a bad wound, I wouldn't be surprised if this alone killed her. But It is also all the power drainage from Lukrasta that's made her weak." She talked, and I herd her clearly, but the only thought was what Grimalkin had just confirmed, Alice was dead.

"She can't be dead Grimalkin! Check again, maybe we over looked something..." I knew that was highly unlikable, but, I guess I wasn't ready to hear that Alice had died...

Grimalkin looked at me, as if thinking the same thing. She knew it would make me feel better, so she nodded doubtfully.

Grimalkin looked at her mark, then she examined her hair and skin. Lastly, Grimalkin sniffed Alice's body, and then froze. She opened her eyes and looked straight at me.

"We need to get her back inside, quickly." She picked Alice up almost effortlessly and started to run back toward the house.

"Wait, what's happened? Grimalkin!" I shouted after her. She kept on running though, but I knew that something was different. Had something changed? Was Alice really dead? When I had saw her earlier it has certainly seemed so, she wasn't breathing for all I knew...

There was only one way to find out, but I was filled with knew hope, and as fast as I could with my staff for balance, limped my way back toward the house to find out what was going on.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: A Word of Advise**

I couldn't run but I walked as fast as I could, desperately wanting to find out what was wrong with Alice. I was almost there but before I could get inside Jenny came running up to me, full of questions I just didn't have time to answer.

"Is he dead? Did the Starblade help?" She asked, looking down at my injury.

"Yes, Jenny, Lukrasta is dead. The Starblade did help. Thank you for bringing it to me... Wait, where did you find it?" I asked, wondering how she could have gotten it. "You didn't have the Starblade when you first me and Grimalkin our weapons."

"I didn't know where it was at the time. It wasn't with your other tools. It wasn't until the, Umm... Oh right, the Alice girl told where it was and that I needed to get it to you immediately." Jenny had said "Alice girl" with a tone of disapproval. They never exactly had time to get along, but I thought they could manage it if Jenny learned to accept the fact that Alice was a witch.

"Are you okay?" She said, looking back at my leg again.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'll get it healed soon. It's just bringing my limp back." Jenny nodded. We fell silent. I needed to get inside and was about to say as much to Jenny before she spoke suddenly.

"I'm really glad your okay. It was terrible when you died... I didn't know what to think. It must have been pretty bad on your part." She told me, tears building up in her eyes. She turned away embarrassed. She must have known how I felt because she had a special ability as a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. She could feel what other felt. She was right, the pain was unbearable, but voice inside my head telling me that I was dying was worse, and incredibly hard to explain. Jenny had known how I felt.

"Jenny," I said to her as she turned back around to face me. Still holding my staff, I put my right hand on her shoulder.

"It takes more than just a assassin to get rid of me." I said smiling at her reassuringly. She nodded and grinned back.

"Well, is there anything that I can help you with?" At that I pulled the Starblade from its recess and handed it to her.

"This sword is very important, Jenny. I need you to put it somewhere safe until I can permanently put it back where it belongs."

"Where was that?" She asked me looking at the blade. I looked up at the horizon. Once she looked back up at me I said something to her that I'd never had thought I'd say to an apprentice of mine.

"All in good time, Jenny. All in good time."

I turned back to look at her again. "I need to do something important now. I'll see you soon once my wound is fixed." At that she nodded, and turned, off to find a good place for the Starblade to be hidden. I could have easily told her it previously had been under my masters coffin, but I didn't want to mention my dead master just yet. All I needed was time.

I walked up to the door, leaning my staff against the wall before opening the door and stepping inside. The narrow hallway wasn't that long so I would see Alice and Grimalkin soon. For the last few steps I took my heart raced, I'd very soon find out if Alice was actually dead. But my worrying was not needed.

Alice was sitting on the bed, Grimalkin about to inject something in her arm. But before she could do so, Alice looked up and saw me, her beautiful brown eyes almost as big as her smile. I walked over to her, she stood up, lost her balance, and fell right into my arms. Grimalkin looked a little irritated.

"Tom, is it true? You killed Lukrasta? You don't know how, how sorry I am. Ain't explainable. I've told you whats what and don't blame you for not believing me, I just- I-"

I laughed through my words.

"I believe you Alice." She brought her head back around to look at me, tears starting to flow down her cheeks.

"You do?" She asked exasperated. I nodded, she grinned widely and hugged me again, almost knocking me over.

"I didn't think you would ever- I'm so glad. You believe me! Tom I'm sorry, I would never had... I should've-"

"Shhhh." I said to silence her. It worked for a moment, then she spoke again.

"I- I... I never want to loose you again..." She said, through her sobs. Not knowing what to say, I said nothing. Grimalkin came forward and injected something in her arm. Almost immediately she became limp and she wasn't hugging me, her body was just leaning against mine.

"Put her on the bed." Grimalkin said quietly, then I can give you something for your leg." She said, walking over to the counter to grab another tool.

I picked Alice up under her shoulders and knees and took her over to the bed. I put her down gently, so glad that she was still alive.

"What happened, what did you do to her?" I asked Grimalkin, watching Alice.

"Wasn't that hard to set to." She called back over her shoulder. "All I did was give her two doses of medicine to officially bring her back from unconsciousness. But in truth, she saved herself. As to what actually happened, she can explain that to you when she wakes back up. Now let me see your wound."

I sat down on the floor next to the bed and pulled up my left pant leg. The cut looked bad, and yes it hurt, but it didn't bother me much, and I told Grimalkin as much.

"Maybe it doesn't get to me as much because I've experienced worse." I said logically. Grimalkin smiled malevolently, then took out the needle in which she would use on me to rid of infection and clean out the cut. Luckily that would make me pass out.

"Maybe... You just better not let that happen again. I really thought you were dead, I didn't even foresee the fights outcome."

"If you had you wouldn't have pushed me to battle the assassin in the first place." I said to her. She didn't respond but changed the topic. "You heal fast though. Your limp improved so much that it was hard to tell you had ever had one. Most people would have taken weeks to heal before even walking around. It proves that something's different about you... Your master believed you to be the most powerful Spook born into the trade for century's. I would have to agree with him on that one..."

Talk of my master always brung down my spirits. I'd missed him... I started to wonder what he would have thought if he had still been alive to witness my death...

"You were right, Grimalkin, I should never had buried the Starblade under John Gregory's coffin." The next words were hard to utter, I dropped my gaze from hers and lowers my voice. "It was one of the most stupidest mistakes I've ever made, and why am I surprised? Unfortunate events right after my masters pass; My apprenticeship cut short, apprentice of my own, no one to guid me through it all, and a new dark God to top it all off..."

Grimalkin smiled, showing her pointed teeth.

"I wouldn't call it 'Unfortunate events', more like experience-" I tutted, but she knocked at least some sense into me with what she said next.

"Your never going to learn anything without practice, and sometime the force against reluctance gives you that first push to start it all off. Your going to be one of the best spook's the county has ever seen, so I wouldn't be doubting yourself just yet."

I understood what she was saying. I just needed to get used to the situation I was in, because once that accomplished, I could make anything of it. I nodded and closed my eyes. Grimalkin then injected the medicine straight into my wound, sending my into unconsciousness.


End file.
